The ability to rapidly develop, deploy, and integrate new software and features is essential to the overall success of many organizations. DevOps is the solution. This glossary of 20 DevOps-related terms will provide you with a working vocabulary.

From the glossary:

For many enterprises, the ability to rapidly develop, deploy, and integrate new software and features is essential to the overall success of the organization. Managing all those moving parts requires workflow procedures that cross traditionally separate departments and can be accomplished only with effective communication and cooperation.

These workflow procedures are referred to as DevOps, which is a mash-up of two terms: “software development” and “information technology operations.” But the term DevOps is not the only one you should be familiar with when it comes to this important management concept. The 21 DevOps terms listed here will give you a working vocabulary and a head start toward developing your own DevOps system.

A/B testing
A technique for testing new software or new features whereby two or more versions are deployed to users for testing. The metrics from each variant are then compared and assessed based on the testing criteria.

Acceptance testing
The testing performed near the end of the development cycle that determines whether software is ready for deployment.

Agile development
In many ways, Agile development is the precursor to DevOps. Agile development refers to a methodology that emphasizes short iterative planning and development cycles. The idea is that iterative development affords more control and establishes predictability.

Application release automation (ARA)
ARA refers to the dozens of available tools, scripts, and other products used to automatically install and configure software into a working or testing environment. It effectively relieves developers and IT professionals from the tedium of manual software deployment.